Despite coalition government pledges that the new ‘pre-departure accommodation’ in the Sussex village of Pease Pottage would be used as a ‘last resort’ and that children would normally be held for less than 72 hours, a Freedom of Information request from the campaign group ‘No-Deportations’ discovered that of the 11 children who entered Cedars pre-departure […]

Two new reports published last week contain damning criticisms of the immigration services provided by private security company G4S. We are nearing the completion of the new ‘pre-departure accommodation’ facility near Pease Pottage, and the commencement of detention for many more asylum seekers including children and families. In the meantime however, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of […]

Disturbing news from Australia reveals that Julia Gillard, the Welsh born Australian Prime Minister, intends to send hundreds of asylum seekers, including many unaccompanied children, to a Tenko-style detention centre in Malaysia complete with watch towers, punishment cages and razor wire. According to Australia’s Green Left magazine, UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay has denounced the […]

The New Statesman reports on a BBC investigation that government pilots involving 113 families in London and the North-West had given families with children just two weeks to voluntarily leave the country. Two families who refused to comply were taken into detention and deported shortly after and two families accepted voluntary re-settlement packages. Significantly only […]

This is the text of Positive Action’s Statement to Supporters of the Sehar must stay in Scotland campaign. We made a last minute plea this morning at 8.30 am to all the key players including Deputy Prime minister Nick Clegg, Immigration Minister Damian Green, Theresa May Home Secretary, but to no avail. Sehar Shebaz was […]

As the government announces that Dungavel will no longer be used for the detention of children, but will be re-purposed as ‘a health check’ facility for families who are facing removal, young mother Sehar Shebaz and her baby are being transported in a prison van to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire from where […]

Campaigners for the release of young Afghani orphan Mashal Jabari were delighted to hear that following a judicial review being lodged the judge agreed the following interim measures: until another full age assessment is completed, Mashal is to be considered 14 years of age and placed with a foster family in Wales where he has some support. After […]

A 14 year old orphan has been arrested & detained in Campsfield Immigration Removal centre near Oxford, which exclusively holds adult males, and is due to be deported because the authorities claim not to believe he is under 18. His older brother has refugee status — the authorities accept that the older brother is under 18. . .As they […]

The Guardian newspaper in its online edition, carries a report by Diane Taylor and Hugh Muir highlighting the shocking allegations of a former caseworker, at the UKBA office in Cardiff. The former UKBA employee, Louise Perrett, claimed that asylum seekers were mistreated, tricked and humiliated by staff working for the UK Border Agency. Ms Perrett reveals how staff kept […]

By JO STEELE – Monday, November 16, 2009 www.metro.co.uk A boy of six who was born in Britain faces being sent to a war-ravaged part of Africa because his parents split up. Adrian Atkinson’s mother, Anna, has been ordered to go to the Congo Republic within the next nine days. The decision, based on Ms […]

Keep Your Promise campaign

End Child Detention Now’s Keep Your Promise campaign launched in January 2011, calling upon Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to keep the coalition government's promise to end child detention immediately and not to build a new detention facility at Pease Pottage near Crawley or to upgrade facilities in Tinsley House into secure family detention accommodation.

To remind Clegg and Cameron of their pledge, End Child Detention Now's friends at the Shpresa Programme have produced an A6 postcard which you can download and print at this link.

If you are a student please get involved in the KYP campaign through STAR (Student Action for Refugees) and help to organise a postcard campaign via your STAR group or contact STAR HQ direct (see 'other campaigns' below).

Alternatively please send an email to End Child Detention Now at info@ecdn.org telling us how many postcards you require (in multiples of 50) and we will send you details of the value of the postage required and where to send your request.

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From the Moderator – Rev Myung Hwa Park Over 700 children will, this year, spend Christmas in one of Australia's immigration detention facilities. Evidence shows this cause them distress & harms their long term wellbeing.

Detainees had access to the internet, but some key websites were blocked. The officer on duty in the internet suite could unblock any site. When we visited, the officer agreed to unblock the Bail for Immigration Detainees' ...

Though no more than an unfunded group of angry friends, End Child Detention Now have been campaigning against the detention of children for immigration purposes for several years. These days, nobody in their right mind ...

End Child Detention. November 21, 2013. Over 1100 children are being held in detention facilities across Manus Island, Nauru and here in Australia. Their average age is 10 years old. All the expert commentary I've seen says that they will be left with ... the peace of the community. They're just saying what we're all thinking: This is wrong. V

Tom Brake MP, chair of the Lib Dem Parliamentary Policy Committee on Home Affairs, explains the progress made by the coalition govt. in ending child detention. Illiberal and unfair: It's time to end child detention now. By Tom ...

The most recent update on the Coalition Government's promises to end child immigration detention is provided by a letter from David Wood of the UK Border Agency. It gives more specific details regarding the pre-departure ...

The New Statesman reports on a BBC investigation that government pilots involving 113 families in London and the North-West had given families with children just two weeks to voluntarily leave the country. Two families who ...

'We will end the detention of children for immigration purposes,' says today's coalition agreement. A stunning victory for children, decency and the Liberal Democrats if this pledge proves good. That may be a very big if.

By Clare Sambrook. THERE is no evidence that asylum-seekers with children are likely to abscond, yet the Government forcibly detains at least 2,000 children and babies every year and holds them, sometimes for months on ...